Time and Place
Time: 4:30pm (Central)
Location: Architecture and Urban Planning Room 170 – UWM Campus – 2131 E Hartford Ave, Milwaukee, WI 53211
Contemporization of Historic Water Architecture: Regeneration | Iteration | Mainstreaming presentation by A. Mridul, Architect, Member of Council of Architecture and Associate Member of the Indian Institute of Architects
Lecture Summary:
Step-wells, subterranean aqua-structures, (Bawari or Vav in local dialect) were an integral part of Indian communities from 2nd century A.D. till the end of 19th century. Relegated in favor of canal and piped water-supply, these exquisite step-wells were gradually abandoned and forgotten.
However, after a hiatus of over a century, as ecological and sustainability issues took center-stage amidst growing concern over the deepening water-crisis, it became vital that ancient wisdom of harnessing water be re-visited and contemporized by resurrecting the traditional ones, creating new ones, rationalizing the modern and integrating the entire gamut of aqua-architecture to build a sustainable water-network.
Using traditional language in contemporary context, a new subterranean structure, Birkha Bawari, fashioned like a step-well, was built in Umaid Heritage Housing Township in Jodhpur, a water-stressed city on the fringe of the Thar Desert of India. With a capacity to hold over 17.5 million litres of rain-water, this Bawari and its unique structural system were designed by Jodhpur (India) based architect A. Mridul. Its creation is especially significant as it is constructed of site-quarried sandstone, built by local craftsman, to harvest a renewable resource without expending non-renewable energies.
BIO:
A. Mridul, Architect, practicing for four decades now, is an internationally awarded architect, with a palette of diverse projects in India and the US. He is the Chairman of Rupayan Sansthan, a folklore institute and a co-founder The Jodhpur Lore, an initiative to promote centuries-old traditional crafts of the region. Committed to judicious use of resources, he innovatively adopts India’s rich repertoire of traditional design practices in contemporary architecture. With the intent of making India water-positive, his practice has been restoring historic water architecture and advocating their new iterations exemplified by an award-winning stepwell Birkha Bawari (b. 2009), to harvest over 17 million liters rainwater. His projects have been widely published and he talks at various institutions in India, Australia, UK and USA.
Questions, comments?
All lectures are free and open to planners, students, staff, faculty, and friends of the University. Please contact Karl Wallick, Department of Architecture
